Chapter 13 — A Hundred Blows of the Wooden Stick Sever the Thread of Life

The half-bodied burly man had been packed into a bamboo basket and carried there on someone's back the whole way, while the limbless grotesque had been carried over; these people made a pitiful and dreadful sight, and the only one who looked normal was the middle-aged man bearing the bamboo basket on his back, except that his face was utterly destroyed, the skin sliced away flat, his features the most hideous and ferocious of all. The one who had just spoken was the burly man with only his upper body; his face full of brute flesh, he sat in the bamboo basket so angry that his beard bristled and his eyes bulged, and from far off he berated Shen Mu: "It seems you've had far too little training! Don't give me talk of having no blade, don't give me talk of a little wooden stick—if your blade art is fine enough, you can cut a man down with a single stroke bare-handed!

" Shen Mu let out a breath and said, hoarse: "Granny Zhu, Grandpa Tu, Grandpa Dan—you've all come? " Granny Zhu giggled: "We raised you through every bitterness and hardship; the first time you leave the house and spend the night out with a strange woman, of course we were uneasy—of course we had to come and take a look.

" Shen Mu blinked and ventured: "How long have you been here?

" The Butcher snorted: "We were already here while you and that brat were trading blows under the belly of the beast herd. How else would I know you struck five thousand four hundred and seventy-six cuts in all?

" Shen Mu's face darkened. These old men and old women had clearly been there long since, and still they had let him fight for his life and nearly lose it. Only now did he realize why the herd had not set on him and Senior Brother Chu: the Butcher and the others had frightened them off.

"People from other villages say Granny and Grandpa Village Chief and the rest are all villains—can that be true?

But I think Granny and the others are good people. They must have thought I could beat that Senior Brother Chu, so they only watched from the side.

.

. " he consoled himself inwardly.

"As an Overlord Body that surpasses spirit bodies, to be beaten into such a sorry state—we are all very disappointed.

" The blind old man leaned on his bamboo cane and spoke with a smile to the empty air.

Shen Mu coughed: "Blind Grandpa, I'm over here. " "I know you are over here. " The blind old man turned around and said, smiling: "You beat that boy with a stick, which only shows it is I who taught you well.

But don't be proud—you are an Overlord Body after all, so being his better is only natural!

From now on your training will be doubled, so don't pull a long face.

.

. " The Butcher said coldly: "Blind Old Man, what he used was plainly my blade art—what have you to be smug about? And what is the point of you mumbling away at a corpse?

"